


this is the way the world ends

by SashaSea (SHCombatalade)



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Dysfunctional Family, Enemies to Friends, F/M, Future Fic, Gen, M/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-09
Updated: 2016-11-09
Packaged: 2018-08-30 02:23:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8515042
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SHCombatalade/pseuds/SashaSea
Summary: Aaron and Neil spending time together actually starts as an accident.





	

**Author's Note:**

> this was written on tumblr months ago, but today I learned that there was no 'Neil Josten & Aaron Minyard' tag on AO3 and that is UNACCEPTABLE

What happens is this: Aaron is out with some of his friends from med school, having some beers and generally a good time, when someone laughingly says “back me up on this Aaron, you’re a twin!” and he has to explain that YES JARED, it _is_ possible to tell even identical twins apart, and FUCK YES JARED, it _is_ still cheating if it’s her sister jesus fuck what is wrong with you and he realizes two things. The first is that Jared is actually a massive fucking jerk and why do any of them keep inviting him to things, and the second is that he actually sort of wants to talk to his brother?

See after PSU things got better (they also got worse). Turns out the twins don’t so much hate each other when they live in separate states (turns out they don’t so much like each other either), and it’s easier to talk when they only do it a few times a month. Short texts, mostly, but occasionally there’s emailing and in the three years since graduation Aaron might even say their conversations are… well, not pleasant. Talking to Andrew is still like pulling teeth sometimes, and his habit of responding in one or two words phrases drives Aaron up a wall but they’re not laden with animosity anymore?

Anyway, he leaves the bar that night and he texts Andrew - _When are you in Chicago next?_

(Andrew texts back _next month_  and Aaron wants to reach through the phone and shake him for a straight answer)

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron goes upstairs for a shower, and comes downstairs to Neil Josten in his kitchen.

“Where’s Andrew?” he ( ~~snarls~~. ~~growls~~. ~~glares~~. ~~hisses~~.) asks.

Neil shrugs. “Court.”

(They both do it, and it drives Aaron up a wall when it’s Andrew and to violence when it’s Neil). “Why is he at the court?”

Neil shrugs again. “There’s a game.”

And _maybe_  it’s Aaron’s fault a little bit. After PSU, he stopped playing exy. Stopped following it entirely. It was all too easy to blame on med school and long hours but really it was just because he never really cared as much as the others did? Maybe at first, but after torture and death and actual war he just sort of grit his teeth and rode out his scholarship and never looked back. “Why aren’t you at the game?” But he really means ‘why the fuck are you in my kitchen?’

“Concussion.” 

(Aaron hadn’t watched the game three nights before, but Katelyn had. Suddenly her rushing out to make sure the fridge was stocked with ice cream and the fruit bowl stocked with weird tropical things neither of them eats makes sense.)

So now Aaron has a weekend he entirely cleared because in a moment of stupidity wrought from three years of being a Normal Person around other Normal People he actually hadn’t considered that the entire team would be coming out for an away game. And he’s got a brother that won’t be free for a few hours, and a girlfriend that intentionally took shifts that would keep her out of the house as much as possible, and he’s got Neil Josten in his fucking kitchen and there’s really only one thing to do.

(Well, two. He could go back upstairs and see how long it takes to drown an adult in a shower - either himself or someone else.)

Instead he crosses his arms and narrows his eyes and in the most apathetic and hateful voice he can conjure up from the depths of a five foot frame that spends weekends at farmer’s markets and cries during the first ten minutes of _Up_ , he asks “Do you… do you even eat tacos?”

(And maybe he feels a little thrill of victory that instead of a one or two word phrase and a bland shrug he gets a confused expression and a “Yeah, of course, why wouldn’t I eat tacos?” like Neil is trying to figure out if Aaron is plotting something or being homophobic or just completely stupid. To be fair though, it’s not like Aaron pays that much attention to Neil’s existence, let alone his eating habits - all he can remember Neil ever eating is fruit or his words or someone else’s fist so he thinks it’s a fair question.)

“There’s a place.” (He gets a second thrill of victory at his own unnecessarily short and vague phrase, because he can see that it’s driving Neil crazy.) Aaron doesn’t go as far as to invite Neil, because he doesn’t want to, but he also doesn’t object when Neil follows him out the door and the three blocks to the taqueria.

They don’t speak the entire time - not to each other, at least. Aaron knows the waitress by name, and Neil is something scarily close to charming when he places an order in flawless Spanish. They share a table, but they don’t sit near the other and they don’t even make eye contact until they’re splitting the check and leaving. “That was good,” Neil says, and then they gladly don’t speak again for almost six months.

* * *

What happens is this: Katelyn says they should go to Denver on a vacation. She says a lot of other things, like “family” and “important” and “I know it’s difficult,” but Aaron tells her it’s okay and he agrees because he doesn’t like the way she looks so ashamed about the idea.

(He does, however, check the schedule on the team’s website to make sure there won’t be a game while they’re there. He spent four hours in awkward silence with Neil last time, and it was five hours too many.)

They get to the apartment and say their hellos and then the atmosphere is that uncomfortable quiet of two sets of people with nothing to say to the other, and Katelyn is smiling like she wants to make small talk but is scared for her life, and Andrew isn’t smiling like he wants to leave because he’s still skittish about this whole _brother_ thing (skittish like the cats they claim to have but Aaron has never seen), and Aaron is counting down the seconds in his head until their four day trip is over, and Neil just sort of shrugs again and asks “Do you eat curry?”

They go get Indian food and Andrew doesn’t talk and Aaron talks to Katelyn and Katelyn talks at Neil with no response on his end and it’s very uncomfortable, but afterwards Aaron has to admit out loud that he “didn’t hate the eggplant” and Neil actually looks at him like he’s aware that he’s spoken.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron may have had the home life from hell, but he had a pretty average experience in school - he had friends, at least, and hobbies. Then he had a brother and his whole life was spiraling into that, and then he was a Fox and there was an entire year of bullshit he never signed up for, and then he and Katelyn were moving to Illinois and it was like a whole new world. He was on his own, away from family, and away from the blood-sweat-and-racquet lifestyle that seemed normal to him when he first explained it to a friend, only to have the friend be so appalled on his behalf that Aaron spent a good week reconsidering how to be a person.

The point is, he has _things_ now. Things he enjoys. People he enjoys doing those things with.

So when a new fusion place opens up to great reviews, he gets together a group of their friends and he and Katelyn walk over to check it out. One of their friends brings his roommate, a first year surgical resident that Aaron thinks he might have seen around once or twice, who after two beers finally decides to address why he’s been staring too much. “So you have a brother, right?”

Somehow it’s become normal for Aaron to mention that he has a brother. “Yeah.”

And the resident is nodding his head and averting his gaze and his roommate is laughing and rolling his eyes. “I mean I know it’s probably a pretty common name but-”

But Katelyn is wearing a Denver Pronghorns t-shirt and even if their last name was Smith the twins have identical fucking faces so no, it’s not really that much a stretch to assume that maybe, _just maybe_ , he’s related to That Minyard. “Yeah.”

And the resident is falling into an awed and terrified silence that he maintains for the entire ten years that they work together, but now the others have latched on to the fact that not only does Aaron have a brother they’ve never met, but the brother is apparently some level of A Deal in this sport they don’t really know or care all that much about, and now they actually ask about him on a regular basis.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron and Katelyn get married. It’s not a surprise. The fact that Andrew shows up, well, that is.

(Shows up _in a suit and doesn’t threaten a single person that night_. It’s like there was a secret triplet just coming out of the woodwork now, except that this is clearly Andrew because he’s got Neil following him around with a sarcastic smile and muttered comments that are either very filthy or very insulting, given the way Andrew is trying so hard to not react to them. Aaron would maybe get angry, except that this is the best day of his life and his twin brother is both present and not speaking to him, which is actually how they prefer it. Aaron is _happy_.)

The other surprise is the way that Neil stops in front of him, doesn’t drop his gaze, and actually says “Congrats, Aaron.”

* * *

What happens is this: Andrew and Aaron are never close, but they’re never distant. They keep just enough in the other’s life that whenever someone references ‘your brother,’ Aaron can actually answer what he’s up to.

And, well, as more and more time goes by, Aaron starts to realize that some of what he’s up to is Neil.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron and Neil are not friends. They aren’t even casual acquaintances. They’re two people who share a family unit and a mutual dislike, and sometimes they share space.

And when they do, one will ask the other “Do you eat-” and offer a suggestion of food, and the other will express whether or not the meal was atrocious.

(It starts because Aaron is the one who plans the evenings with their friends, and so he always knows the best times and the best places to go. It also starts because all Aaron knows about Neil is that he is still alive, so he clearly eats. It also starts because Aaron hopes and prays that maybe Neil will be too occupied putting food into his mouth for any words to come out, and maybe they can pass just enough time to never have to see each other again.)

It’s not a relationship, but as the years go by it gets to be their routine.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron and Andrew turn fifty, and Neil is still there.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron is fifty-two years old the head of his department at one of the top ranked teaching hospitals in the country, and he has a large group of friends - some of which he has known for nearly thirty years. He’s married to an amazing woman, who is the head of _her_  department at the same top ranked teaching hospital in the country, and they have finally purchased a house in the suburbs.

(They never wanted kids, but they always wanted a lawn.)

They buy a barbecue and an absurd amount of meat and beer at Costco, and Aaron calls up a few of their closest friends to call up a few more, and they host their very first backyard party.

“Aaron, man!” and Derek toasts him from across the table with a half-drunken beer, “these ribs are the best!”

He toasts back. “Thanks, man. It’s this spice rub my brother-in-law recommended.”

Derek toasts again, presumably for the brother-in-law, and Aaron allows the words he’s spoken aloud to catch up with him. Then he quietly excuses himself, gets up from the table, and walks inside.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron and Neil are not friends, but they are part of each other’s lives.

It was easy enough to hate him at first, mostly because Neil Josten is easy to hate, but after this amount of time ( _Thirty-two years_ , Aaron knows, because it’s just about the same as him and Katelyn. They’ve reached a point in their life where there’s not a single person in their usual interactions who has ever known them when they were not together. Given that his relationship with his brother didn’t really begin until after college, Aaron is slowly realizing the same.) it’s almost more effort for them to maintain a distinct non-relationship.

Now that Neil has retired (and _oh_ , did Aaron hear about that. He thinks it was the first time one of their meals hadn’t gone to script, but Neil was paying so he didn’t think to complain) he’s had to find things to fill his time - hobbies and interests and friends, like Aaron had done when he first moved to Chicago - and with that he’s managed to find things to talk about that don’t make Aaron want to choke to death on his food.

Now when Katelyn talks to Andrew, she doesn’t look afraid for her life. It had taken three years of marriage and a sharp “If I was going to kill you I would have done it by now” over Thanksgiving that should not have been as comforting as it was, but they’ve actually managed quite a few conversations over the years.

Now when they go to Denver, Andrew doesn’t disappear into another room or into himself (Aaron never got to know Sir or King, but the new cats, Baron Meownchausen and The Supurreme Being, frequently curl around his feet and fall asleep purring on the guest bed). Half the time he still responds in one or two word phrases, but Aaron has learned that’s more his personality than it is anything personal.

And now when Aaron finds himself sharing a space with Neil, they also share a conversation.

* * *

What happens is this: Aaron and Neil are not friends.

But one day, thirty-two years down the road, they’re not enemies either.

(And one day, thirty-four years down the road, Aaron invites them to a backyard party and finally introduces his brother to his friends. And then, still smiling, he introduces them to Neil.)

**Author's Note:**

> I'm not adding it to the series tag, but this fic 10000% takes place within the coin toss universe


End file.
